If you have more time than money and/or taste for diy electronic project, you may consider replacing the audio pot by LDR and use a 20cts generic pot as a control to a dimer for the LED's lighting the LDR. This method has made it's proof for audio circuit, it works very well, just it's not a drop in replacement part, you'll need to get your hands in it.
Another well proofed method is to use a quality rotary switch and fixed resistors array. That's probably what's inside the 600$ gizmos that have been shown in previous post. That's also how the early REDD fader found in abbey road where made. That could probably be made for few 10's$. I've made some test that showed that for most mere mortal 16 position is enought, 32 is good and 64 is much more precise than what they could get with an analog pot.
Just my 2cts...